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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Sam Quigley, sam@patrioticmillionaires.org

Patriotic Millionaires Celebrate Democratic Plan to Raise Taxes on Pass-Through Income

"Pass-throughs have been abused by wealthy Americans for years to reclassify their income and avoid paying the taxes they rightfully owe."

WASHINGTON

Today, it was reported that Democrats plan to expand a 3.8% surcharge on investment income to owners of pass-through businesses, in the process raising over $200 billion dollars to expand Medicare access.

In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:

"Pass-throughs have been abused by wealthy Americans for years to reclassify their income and avoid paying the taxes they rightfully owe. The Democratic plan to apply the investment income surtax to wealthy pass-through business owners is an important step in the right direction toward fixing this problem and making rich people like me pay our fair share."

"Voters are sick and tired of the rich and powerful playing by a different set of rules. This change would close a ridiculous giveaway to only the richest Americans, and reinvest the windfall back into the American public. This moves us closer to fixing the out-of-control wealth inequality that plagues our nation, but there's still a lot of work to be done. Democrats should follow this change with more aggressive changes to make our tax code work for all Americans, not just the rich."

The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.

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